


The Disneyist of Films

by yourlibrarian



Series: Reviews [22]
Category: Ant-Man (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Reviews
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-14
Updated: 2018-08-14
Packaged: 2019-06-27 12:38:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15685593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourlibrarian/pseuds/yourlibrarian
Summary: MCU films manage to avoid too much monotony by playing with different genres in many of its releases.  However it doesn't do anything to reinvent them, which might have been helpful with AntMan and the Wasp.  Major spoilers for the film.





	The Disneyist of Films

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted July 10, 2018.

Short take: I liked it, though not as much as the first film. 

I expected to like it better. I definitely liked the more central role of Hope, as well as the fact that the movie turned on daughters -- Hope as Janet and Hank's daughter, their Ghost antagonist (villain might be too strong) also being a daughter with a father figure, and of course Cassie and Scott. However my feeling about it was mostly "it's fine." Because the movie didn't really harbor surprises, it all seemed like a re-run from the first movie, but not as funny. 

The second thing is that, while I like the fact that Marvel keeps making its various films overlap different genres, I disagree strongly with this film being called a rom-com. Romance is not at the center of it -- it's a family film is what it is. And part of that is the way that the threats in this movie are toned down in a way they are not in other films. This movie would slot right in, frankly, into Disney's history of fantasy adventure films such as Flubber or Bedknobs and Broomsticks. And while I think that it's a good choice for Marvel, I don't have much interest in family films.

But in terms of a plot retread, here are some things I could single out. We again have Scott as the former convict trying to keep things on the straight and narrow for fear of not seeing his daughter. We're told that it's because Scott got a plea deal to spring him from prison assuming he stopped breaking the Sokovia Accords and lived under house arrest (following the events in Civil War). His antagonist this time is not Cassie's stepfather but a new character (who I did like), FBI agent Jimmy Woo, who must several times be thwarted in catching Scott breaking his agreement.

Cassie's parents seem to have no further disagreements, with Maggie and Paxton being highly supportive and defensive of Scott. This is fine but obviously there's no tension there nor is Agent Woo ever a particularly threatening presence. 

Hope once again is not that thrilled with Scott (while still attracted to him), this time because Scott broke the trust of Hank and Hope by rushing off to help Team Cap in Civil War without ever telling them -- and potentially losing Hank's only Ant suit. We later find out that Hope might have joined him had she been given a chance, so she also saw Scott's betrayal as an indication that he was not that committed to her. 

Hank is particularly not happy with Scott but there is more Hank and Hope time than Hank and Scott time in this movie. Hank and Hope's main concern is not keeping Hank's tech secret but in finding the lost Janet, who they think might be alive given Scott's own return from the quantum realm. But either way, Scott is still along for the ride in this film much as he was in the last one, with Hope and Hank running the show.

Luis and his team, T.I. and Kurt, are now going legit, attempting to get a security service up and running. Personally I loved the idea of Luis trying to track every nickel in the business (because secretly it's about to go under). However the product placement was a little on the nose. The whole project is not going well, which adds yet another plot thread to the drama because Scott feels obligated to help them. 

However there's no development there for these characters (or even last names) because until they become the bad guys' lever against Scott, they're really not involved in anything. Also, while I loved every time Luis got to tell stories in the first film, it happens once here and you can see it coming a mile away. (Suffice it to say that I heartily agree with the idea floated around Tumblr that the Infinity War saga should end with Luis narrating the entire MCU history.) 

The biggest change is with villains. There is a true villain in this film, Sonny Burch and his gang of black market tech thugs, as well as the corrupt FBI guy. But while they cause a lot of chaos to interrupt the plot, they are stock characters and they're not particularly threatening. From early on Ghost seems more misfit than villain, and once we get her story from Bill Foster (any relation to Jane?) she's more of a pathetic figure even if dangerous. This does give us some contrast from AntMan 1 in that we have less of the egotistical, power-hungry one-note villain antagonist and more of a juggling situation by our heroes.

The bit with Uzman and the "truth serum" was indeed amusing but it was a little too forced to be outright funny. Even Stan Lee's cameo was not as entertaining as it sometimes is. 

The real stakes in the film were (1) Scott getting caught (2) Janet dying (3) Ghost/Ava dying. Because we barely know either of the women the stakes are not high -- we probably care more about Scott's future (except I doubt anyone thinks he'd be on the bench in Infinity War 2). And at one point it seems quite possible either Janet or Ava or both would die. But then, family film. No one dies, and in the coda we learn that team Pym-Van Dyne is in fact trying to help cure Ava. Nothing wrong with that, I don't need to see main characters dying for something to be a good film or for a movie to have suspense. In Winter Soldier the biggest character to die is the main villain -- everyone else survives. But that film had far more tension throughout than this one so the effect is different.

In the first film we also had the novelty of Scott's powers, the team up with the ants, and discovering the Pym backstory. In this film we know all of that already, and while Wasp has some nifty power upgrades and there are a lot of fun action bits in the movie (the best part in this case) there's really nothing new in the mix. There aren't even the same wacky moments as in the first film when we have a fight on a model train set, or when, one of my favorite moments, a giant ant runs past Paxton's police partner and he jerks away saying "That's a damn ugly dog!" 

Instead the tone of the film is set in its first few minutes, which are spent with Scott and Cassie playing at a heist in cardboard boxes in his house. (How exactly an unemployed guy under house arrest affords a residence of this size by himself in San Francisco is a damn good question). After a bit we understand that the reason for this elaborate game is because Cassie is stuck there with Scott and has been for some time. It's a clever way to set up his family situation (and the FBI monitoring) but it's not an opening that really grabs you. 

And I guess that, to me, was the problem with the film. Nothing in it really grabbed me or sucked me in. It was entertaining and fine but not a compelling view and with nothing deeper in the mix than what one sees on the surface. 

The biggest "oh wow" moment is when Ant Man ties into Infinity War in the first credits scene and we see what they've been up to. Then we find out that only Scott survives the cull but he's also trapped. The final credit scene with the ant is also post-IW, and it's supposed to be amusing but instead it just seemed very little for a long wait. So depending on what happens in Avengers 4, Scott could be a key figure or we could discover he sits out the whole thing. The latter seems unlikely but certainly Wasp isn't likely to have much of a role. 


End file.
